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Reshaping Cities, Rebuilding Nations: The Role of National Urban Policies

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Abstract

The challenges of rapid urbanisation in large parts of Africa are beyond the capacity of local government to manage. The paper explores the arguments for a national urban policy to complement local strategies, reflecting the unique power of the central state and the special circumstances of cities. With appropriate support, urbanisation could become a more positive force for economic and human development. Recent experience in South Africa illustrates some of the difficulties and possibilities for agreeing a systematic approach to planning and managing urban growth and transformation. Key stakeholders in the policy process have focused on urban poverty as an immediate priority and broadened the traditional economic argument for nations targeting cities to spell out a long-term environmental and economic development agenda.

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Notes

  1. China’s dramatic reduction in poverty through sustained jobs growth over the last two decades is a simple illustration of the close connection that can exist between urbanisation and industrialisation if the conditions are right.

  2. Examples of these large urban regions include Cairo–Alexandria–Port Said–Suez in Egypt, Lagos–Ibadan in Nigeria, Kenitra–Casablanca in Morocco and Gauteng in South Africa. Some cut across national borders, such as the Lagos–Cotonou–Lomé–Accra corridor linking the key coastal urban areas of Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana.

  3. The Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme identified 13 of the poorest rural nodes where public expenditure on anti-poverty programmes was intended to be coordinated more effectively. The Geographic Spread Programme sought to link a range of initiatives intended to encourage development in different parts of the country—core and periphery, rural and urban. The draft Regional Industrial Development Strategy aimed to boost infrastructure and business development in areas lagging behind the core regions, although it also recognised the reality of rural–urban migration and the need to bolster the leading regions (Department of Trade and Industry 2006).

  4. It is interesting in this regard that the word ‘city’ or ‘cities’ featured only once in the 134 pages of the recent Fifteen Year Presidency Review of South Africa (Presidency 2008) and that had a negative association with crime.

  5. The South African Cities Network is an influential partnership of stakeholders across government and civil society driven by the nine largest municipalities and supported by the DPLG and international body Cities Alliance. It was established in 2001 and aims to improve the management of South African cities by all spheres of government through better information and understanding.

  6. A complementary rural development strategy was also advocated to respond to the distinctive conditions in the countryside.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8RS, Scotland, UK

    Ivan Turok

  2. Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa

    Susan Parnell

  3. African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa

    Ivan Turok & Susan Parnell

Authors
  1. Ivan Turok
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  2. Susan Parnell
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Correspondence to Ivan Turok.

Additional information

This paper draws on work for the South African Cities Network on preparing the ground for a National Urban Development Framework that was led by the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town.

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Turok, I., Parnell, S. Reshaping Cities, Rebuilding Nations: The Role of National Urban Policies. Urban Forum 20, 157–174 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-009-9060-2

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